The present invention generally relates to a signal reproducing arrangement and more particularly, to a disc storing or accommodation tray used, for example, in an optical disc system, etc. which employs a recording medium in the form of a disc having, in its information tracks, recorded digital signals in a high density therein, and to a disc reproducing apparatus or disc player (referred to as a disc player hereinbelow) employing such a disc accommodation tray.
Generally, a disc accommodation tray of the above type is employed for video discs on which video signals are recorded, digital audio discs recorded with coded audio signals, and high density information recording and reproduction discs used in the fields related to computers, etc.
In such disc systems, coded video signals, audio signals, and various information are preliminarily recorded on discs in the form of information tracks, and while the disc is being rotated at high speeds, light rays emitted from a light source such as a laser light source, etc. are converged onto the information tracks on the disc for reading the reflected light from the disc surface, so as to reproduce the originally recorded information.
Such an optical system information reading apparatus is capable of reading extremely dense recorded information, thus making it possible to effect recording at high density, high accuracy and high performance as compared with the conventional apparatuses of the analog system.
However, these discs recorded with information at high density as described above are made of resin materials such as acrylic resin, polycarbonate resin, etc., and are considered to deteriorate extremely in performance or become incapable of reproduction, if flaws or scratches are formed or fingerprints are left on the disc surface, and therefore, disc accommodation trays are required in order to protect the discs against any damage or soiling.
Hereinbelow, a conventional accommodation tray will be described with reference to a compact disc taken up as an example.
In FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional accommodation tray 2 together with a disc 1. The disc 1 with dimensions of 120 mm in diameter, 15 mm in a central opening diameter, and 1.2 mm in thickness may be accommodated in the tray 2 by forcing its central opening 4 onto an engaging portion 3 being resilient and being provided generally at a central portion of the tray 2 molded from a resin material. At a portion around the outer peripheral edge of the engaging portion 3, there is formed a circular convex portion 5 for slightly raising the disc 1 so that the surface of the disc 1 may not directly contact the corresponding surface of the accommodation tray 2.
In the conventional arrangement as described above, however, in the case where the disc 1 is to be mounted on the accommodation tray 2, it is necessary to depress a portion of the disc in the vicinity of its central portion by fingers, while on the other hand, for dismounting the disc 1 from the tray 2, only the outer peripheral portion of the disc 1 is normally lifted, but in this case since the detaching becomes difficult due to warping at the peripheral portion of the disc 1, it is necessary, in the actual practice, to detach the disc 1 while reducing the resiliency or spring force with respect to the central opening 4 of the disc 1 through depression at the central portion of the engaging portion 3 of the tray 2 by finger tips, thus requiring troublesome procedures for the attaching and detaching operations of the disc 1. Furthermore, there has been such a problem that the conventional accommodation tray is intended only to store the disc without any damage thereto, and is not suitable for applicatin to a disc player for reproduction of the disc, with the disc being accommodated in the tray as it is.